Fitbit Blaze first look: New fitness watch smacks of style over substance

CES 2016: Fitbit goes on the defensive against the threat of the Apple Watch

Arguably one of the most important wearable devices ever released, the Fitbit Blaze has a lot riding on its success. With Fitbit’s colossal share price and a precarious position as the number one manufacturer in the wearable market, the Blaze is the first Fitbit to be released with high expectations and serious competitors.

While Fitbit has previously dismissed the Apple Watch as a competitor, a theme of CES 2016 has been the realisation that buyers will only wear one device on their wrist, and it seems that Fitbit’s strategy has been to go on the defensive against Apple by injecting a little smartwatch chic into its latest fitness tracker.

We got hands on with the device in Las Vegas, and to be honest, this first look review has been hard to write. To level with you, it’s all a bit meh. Let us try and explain why.

Fitbit Blaze: Design and build

The Fitbit Blaze’s design is certainly bold. With a look that echoes its sibling the Fitbit Surge with a hint of the Samsung Gear 2 Neo, the metal bezel forms a hexagon that’s eye-catching and pleasing. It’s thin to boot, sitting flush against the wrist without substantial bulk of the Apple Watch.

The design is fairly unisex, and choosing a more masculine or feminine strap certainly has the power to transform the look of the device – you’ll find that customisation is a big part of the Blaze’s story. The Fitbit Blaze has a host of different straps available, which the body of the device can be quickly snapped into, as you can see in the video below.

A problem with Fitbit’s previous wares is that while they look at home with your gym kit, they don’t look quite so appealing with your suit/cocktail dress when you head out for dinner. The new design certainly addresses this, and the company hopes people will buy multiple bands for different occasions.

Another new element is the sharp and bright 1.66-inch colour touchscreen LCD, which wouldn’t look out of place on any smartwatch. As you’d expect, it puts your stats front and centre and you can tap the screen to cycle through steps, calories and heart rate. Swipe to the right to start a workout, access the guided FitStar programmes and access settings and alarms.

The whole experience is a kind of sluggish, though, and it feels like the Blaze is a tad underpowered. The menus feel lethargic as you scroll between them, which isn’t too much of a problem – you’re hardly using demanding apps – but does detract from an otherwise polished design.

The reason for this is possibly one of the Fitbit Blaze’s biggest strengths. The company claims a battery life of five days and nights, which is impressive longevity.

Fitbit Blaze: Activity tracking

In terms of the activity tracking on offer, it’s very much a case of business as usual. There’s no GPS on board, which means the metrics captured – namely steps, heart rate, sleep, active minutes and floors climbed – are the same as the Fitbit Charge HR.

Cheekily the company boasts “Connected GPS” on the spec sheet, but this is a continuation of the MobileRun feature which means you’ll need to take a smartphone out with you.

The lack of GPS adds to the slightly underwhelming reaction to the Fitbit Blaze. Before CES, Fitbit’s CEO James Park spoke of the company’s intention to add metrics such as stress, but that hasn’t materialised here. It’s another reason to argue that the Blaze is simply a repackaging of existing tech to appeal to those on the fence between Fitbit and Apple.

Naturally, it does feature the automatic activity tracking which has been recently added to the rest of the Fitbit range, which means you don’t need to worry about forgetting to manually activate a session, and sleep is detected automatically too.

The Fitbit Blaze still uses the company’s proprietary PurePulse technology, but clearly until we get it on our wrists and out on the roads we can’t comment on its accuracy.

Guided workouts are also a new addition to the Blaze, which have arrived courtesy of the company’s acquisition of FitStar. The 7 Minute workout, 10 Minute Abs and a general warm up programme are all available. This is possibly the most pleasing addition to the Fitbit Blaze, and will certainly appeal to hardcore fitness fans. We’d love to see this expanded to include HIIT training and gym workouts too.

Fitbit Blaze: Smartwatch features

Fitbit has been keen to stress that the Blaze isn’t a smartwatch, despite the addition of notifications. Calls and texts are delivered to the watch, although it’s opted not to support third-party services such as WhatsApp and Facebook.

The company says this is to “simplify” the experience, but it’s hard to shake off the feeling that the lack of third-party apps simply makes the Blaze less useful.

WhatsApp and similar services have already replaced SMS as a means of digital communication and their omission is slightly bizarre.

Fitbit Blaze: Early verdict

There’s a distinct lack of innovation in the Fitbit Blaze, and there’s little to really get excited about. What we do have is the best looking Fitbit ever made, and it’s sure to sell handsomely to the next generation of fitness tracking enthusiasts.

However, those of us who were desperate to see Fitbit raise the bar in the accuracy and relevance of fitness metrics for our everyday lives will be sadly underwhelmed.